The Japanese brand's award-winning hot hatch – which was Drive's Best Performance Car Under $60,000 in 2017 – set the lap record for the world's fastest front-wheel drive production car around the Nurburgring last year, and now Honda wants more record at other race tracks.

Jenson Button will join a team of racers - that feature several world time attack drivers - with the aim to set new lap time benchmarks at iconic European racetracks.

The initial tracks in question are Silverstone in the UK, Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and Estroil in Portugal. More tracks will be announced at a later date, but expect Monza in Italy and Hungaroring - the location of the Hungarian F1 race - to be on the agenda as Honda looks to beat the times set by the previous Civic Type R in a similar challenge in 2016.

Honda's new Type R is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine that produces 228kW and 400Nm and can sprint from 0-100km/h in 5.7 seconds.